Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-01-28

| could have on this occasion. As
approached the point aimed at, my
greatest fear was the approach Of day.
At last | came to a large log. or fallen
tree, some four or five feet in diane
ter. This was directly in my track,
and | judged by my smcllcr that be
and the Indians secrcted. suppose
| must have been an hour advancing
the last fifty feet. When arrived at
the tree, realized that the most dan
gerous part of the work was before mo
arose with the greatest caution, and
imagined as | stood there that every
beat Of my heart must become audible
to the Indians. When | arose from
| my STOPPING position sufficient to take
in the view on the opposite side of the
tree, all was blank, no sign of fire
and all was quiet; but knowing my
| game | remained niutionlcsS. Al
though could not see fire, knew it
was there, and ii Il fire was there why
was it made except for warmth, and
by whom required ii not for Indians.
All this flashed through my brain in a
moment. In short time things be
gan to assume shape The first beams
Of day brought to my view an Indian
leaning against and on the opposite
| side of the tree, about twenty feet
to my left. lie was so quiet that |
hoped he was asleep, and Immediately
in front lay several squads of the en-
envy. ] have often heard it said that
a drowning man will see every act of
his life spread out before him in mo-
mcnt OF time, and that thoughts which
require an hour of time to ex-
press in words vii! pass through his
brain in flash So ii was with me
ut that moment. Should attempt to
tell you Ill OF my thoughts and calcu-
lations, made in moment Of time, it
would take me quarter of an hour.
My first thought was retreat. ! had
learned what | had been sent to asrcr-
tain; but how escape? If | moved
and the Indian was not asleep, how
was to escape his eye. 1t is true il
was an easy matter to shoot him, but
that would alarm the others and the
design of the trip be frustrated. The
attempt must be made, let the result
be what it may. The first thing was
to make sure that was not observed
by the Indian leaning against the tree
When | cast my eyes upon him this
time, he had been transformed into Il
large limb. So one of my bug-a-booS
had disappeared. BY this time it had
become light enough to see quite
plainly, and when | came to look for
the Indians spread out upon the
ground they too had disappeared and
were but the creatures of imagination.
l Immediately sprang over the tree
and found the fire which had so de-
ceivcd us. 1t was in an old, dry, de-
cayed log The Indians had fired it
and it had furnished heat but no
smoke, and the steam arising from ii
was strong and easily recognized 10y
an old clam-digger. | made the signal
as agreed upon and in few minutes
Jim was with me. We ran over the
ground and found that there must
have been at that spot, lying i'll am
bush, not less than thirty or forty, and
on the opposite side of the road an
other large body of Indians had been
lying. At several places on the hill
side, above the road, we found places
where number of the redskins had
been sccreted behind logs and hillocks
but the sign was several hours old.
We found that these signs all lead in
the direction of the tord. We now
pushed on with all possible speed to
the ford of the Puyallup. Here We Sc
crcted ourselves, where We had good
view of the ford and drift ut its foot.
which was situated on the opposite
side of the river. Here let me say,
when We got within Il quarter of mile
of the ford Goudy wanted to swim the
river and scout the drift, but in nv
opinion it was useless risk of life, so
| would not consent.
We lay at this point until We
thought it was about time for the ar
rival of the command, and not seeing
or hearing anything to lead us to be-
lieve that the Indians were in the
neighborhood, we concluded to cross
the river by the ford. Then with re-
volver i'll each hand we started. We
had got into the river perhaps fifty
feet when We heard the bark OF dog.
The sound ran along the bluffs of the
river so SO that We could not determine
from which direction it came. In fact
don't think we stopped or took time
to locate from whence the sound came
If we had thought, We would have
known that Indians on the warpath
don't keep barking dogs; but at the
yelp We made tracks for the brush.
(Jim said that he could beat me run
ming on land but in the water | made
two steps to his onc). Suffice it to
say that We both We're not long in get
ting into the brush, but when we got
| there We both We're wet to the neck.
You say what about the dog? A
Scotchman, living at Bradley's, feeling
like taking a hand i'll the expedition,
requested Capt. Hays to let him attend